Basil

First of all, zoodle is a made-up word for vegetables that have been cut to look like noodles. Make this recipe vegetarian by substituting 8 oz. fresh shiitake mushrooms in place of the bacon and using a vegetable stock or water.

There’s no stock in this wintry vegetarian stew recipe—it relies on the starchy bean cooking liquid for its flavor (which is a polite way of saying sorry, but you can’t use canned beans here and get the same results).

These are jumbo-sized ravioli, and each one envelops an egg yolk, which will run when you cut the pasta open and mingle with the pan sauce. Duh-lish! Here are step-by-step instructions on how to shape and fill raviolo.

Trying to slice into this eggplant Parmesan while it's molten hot creates an oozy mess, so let it rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to firm up before serving. This is part of BA's Best, a collection of our essential recipes.

Full disclosure: We streamlined and simplified this recipe so that it could be makeable by a home cook. At Baroo, virtually every element on the plate is a product of painstaking labor and time; to taste the original, get thee to Los Angeles.

Real talk: This is a dish to make when the tomatoes are peaking—at the farmers' market, you should be able to smell them before you see them. The moment only comes around once a year, so make the most of it (which is to say, do very little with them). This is part of BA's Best, a collection of our essential recipes.

The lobster cooking liquid is used as the base for this multilayered and rich soup, which gets additional depth from lobster shells, corn cobs, and other summer vegetables. If serving at a party, set out the big pot of soup and the garnishes family-style and let guests doctor their own bowls.

The key to cooking with chiles is to think of their heat not as a dare but as another essential building block of flavor, right alongside salt, acid, and fat. Rather than overpowering a dish, a perfectly calibrated prickle of spice enhances the other elements and wakes up the palate.